Which World Wonders should I build and by when?

Well I been playing the same game over and over not really getting out of the medieval era and I've figured out some of the world wonders I like and which ones I don't. I usually avoid Terracotta Army and The Great Wall however I've found that the pyramids are a must and usually up for grabs early on. Stone Henge should be built quickly if you want to start your own religion and didn't find a goody hut with a gang of free faith in the game.

The World Wonders I have rough dates on when they should be built is Chichen Itza needs to be finished before around 500 AD and Machu Picchu, if someone else is building it, before 800 AD.

One problem I've found with spamming World Wonders is I often neglect my army and another civilization destroys mine with little resistance since I spent the whole game building world wonders, so is a good rule of thumb to build one Military unit per World Wonder?

Personally, I find Pyramids a little 'meh', but that's because I rarely expand that much beyond my four core cities, so the free workers isn't too incredible and it requires going into a social policy that doesn't fit with my goals. Stonehenge can be pretty good but I wouldn't call it a priority really, unless you're really focused on religion. I'd say the two best early game wonders by quite a wide margin are The Great Library and Hanging Gardens. If you've got a desert start, Petra shoots to the top of that list. When to get it relies almost entirely on your difficulty level.

I've never really thought about things in terms of a unit-wonder ratio. It really does depend on your neighbors though. Generally you should build enough military just to stay contestible with your opponents. The ratio of those units to wonders isn't really relevant. If you've got an aggressive neighbor, or one whose close by or you've annoyed in some way, it's a good idea to have more. If not, it's probably fine to hover around the middle to lower end militaristically, making sure to maintain decent relations with your biggest threats and to keep an eye on things.

It's quite dependent upon a number of factors, chief of which is probably what you're aiming for in the game. If you're wanting to invade your neighbours, you're more likely to want the Terracotta Army. If you're surrounded by raging barbarians, going for the Great Wall makes more sense. The Pyramids might be quite nice, but then it's only going to be available if you for Liberty, so you need to consider whether that's what you want to do. There are certainly wonders that you'll want more often than not, or hardly ever, but it's entirely situational, and if you miss out, it's not going to be the end of your world.

Keep in mind that you don't necessarily need to build any wonders. If you're finding yourself in trouble militarily, it's better to focus on that instead of putting all your production into wonders. Remember that if your neighbour spends their time building the wonder instead, they can't build up their military as much, so you might be able to just take their city, complete with the wonder.

Building World Wonders is dependent on a few factors, primarily difficulty level. For example, the Great Library is a pretty strong wonder, but getting it on Immortal and Deity is virtually impossible. For going tall, the Temple of Artemis and Hanging Gardens are great. For going wide, Machu Picchu and the Pyramids are decent.

Certain Civilizations also have good synergy with some wonders. If you're playing as Germany and you've managed to get a few different units from Barbarian Camps, the Terracotta Army can give you a huge army. Byzantium can really benefit from Stonehenge since it doesn't receive any other bonuses to it's UA. Persia and Brazil definitely want Chichen Itza.

One of the biggest problems with Wonder Spamming, as you've mentioned, is a lack of empire development. While you're pumping out all of those wonders, you could be falling behind in infrastructure and military production. I know all the wonders look so tempting, but it's usually better to pick a few specific wonders that you want and prioritize them. You can still go for the others, but make sure you're also building military units and infrastructure. Keep up with all necessary buildings (MonumentsLibraries/Universities, Markets, etc.) and try to stay at least at the military average on the demographics pages.

In addition, your Civilization choice, victory goals, surrounding terrain, and neighbors all play large roles in determining what you should go for. If you could give difficulty, Civilization, and the Victory Condition you're aiming for, I could be much more specific. Good luck!

Whats the deal with the hanging gardens? Every time I see that wonder is available and try to build it the AI will ALWAYS wait until I have one turn left and then build it before me. It happens every time, almost seems like an AI will keep it in it's build order at one turn left then cheat to see what I'm building.

How long are you waiting to build it? If in trying for it, I usually go Pottery, Animal Husbandry, [luxury tech], then straight to Currency and start in on it then. I can almost always get it on Emperor and below. Immortal and Deity... ehh not as much. Maybe if you tech straight there and get a worker out there quickly. Also, it depends if any of the AI went Tradition.

As has been said above, it depends largely upon the level you're playing at, your civ/aim, and your starting location.

On Immortal (and I think on Deity too) you can fairly reliably get the Oracle. If you go for it then providing your starting location has reasonable production (ideally, a couple of hills and a couple of forests to chop) you can generally get Stonehenge, but that's very committal and so in most cases isn't worth the investment. You may sometimes get the Mausoleum, and can often get the Pyramids if you want them. I don't tend to go after it but I believe the Temple of Artemis is feasible providing you go for Archery very quickly.

Otherwise:
Great Library: don't even think about it at this level.
Statue of Zeus: you might be able to get this, but if you're opening Honour then you're almost certainly better off just building more units.
Great Lighthouse: maybe it's possible, but it's highly unlikely to be worth the investment. Very committal.
Parthenon: haven't tried this. My guess is that it's probably possible, but you'd need to be quick about it - it tends to go around turn 65 in my experience. Probably not worth the commitment and investment.
Hanging Gardens: most attempts to get this will fail. I don't think this is ever likely to be worth the risk.
Petra: possible, but you need to really go for it. Writing, possibly Mining, and then straight to Currency. Only ever go after it in your capital (unless you're Poland and you're lining up a Great Engineer from finishing Liberty) May be worth the risk in some cases. This is perhaps the most variable in terms of when it goes (except for the Pyramids).
Great Wall: I've never managed to get this, although I believe some people have, possibly using a GE from Liberty again.
Colossus: iirc you can get this, but it is of course very committal and generally not worth the risk. Perhaps consider it when playing as Venice, but in general you're going to be better heading to Philosophy and just getting your National College.

From medieval onwards, if you really want a wonder then on Immortal you can probably get it (I doubt this is so much the case on Deity, you'd have to ask a Deity player) but you need to focus on getting the important buildings up and ignore most of the wonders. Depending on Victory condition, the important wonders are (roughly):

Domination: none are particularly necessary. The Brandenburg Gate and the Pentagon are handy, as can be the Kremlin and Prora if you have the ideology.

Diplomatic: The Forbidden Palace is very useful.

Science: Definitely the Porcelain Tower. The Hubble Telescope is also excellent, you may want to acquire a Great Engineer using faith in order to rush it. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is very useful. too. If you go Freedom, then possibly Big Ben?

Culture: This is the one which really requires wonders. Ideally you want as many as possible of Sistine Chapel, Leaning Tower, Shakespeare's Theatre (I struggle to get both of those, but it helps if you have your Ironworks built in a city other than your capital), Uffizi (actually pretty difficult to get), Louvre, Broadway, Eiffel Tower, and the Sydney Opera House.

Aside from these, religious wonders (providing you have a religion - or with the Hagia Sophia, even if you don't yet) can be useful if you have beliefs which contribute towards your victory plan, the Porcelain Tower is always useful and usually easy to get because the AI rarely heads into Rationalism, and the Ideological Wonders are always useful at least for the free policies.

Build times will depend on difficulty level, map type, and the AIs in the game so without at least knowing the first two, it's impossible to give dates.

On prince, with a decent start, you can almost be guaranteed one of the 6 ancient wonders. You can probably get 3-4 if you make them a priority, but IMO you're going to slow yourself down trying and make later wonders that would be yours to take (because of tech/production superiority) competitive at least. Of the 6, 2 require you open a policy tree: liberty for the pyramids and honor for the Statue of Zeus. Opening multiple social policy trees just for the wonders is generally bad so unless you plan to pick these anyway, I would probably skip the associated wonders. SoZ is nice if you're doing an early domination victory, but if you're being peaceful it's fairly worthless. You can get a bigger bonus by teching faster and having stronger units. For the pyramids, you can buy 2.5 workers for the same price so I'm not a big fan. Getting 1 worker out in < half the time will more than make up for the loss of the +25% tile improvement rate.

For the other ancients, the Great Library is probably the one most people would take given the choice. +3 science is a lot at that point, and if you time it right to get a tech that would normally take 15 turns to research, that can be huge. Stonehenge is great if you want to found a religion. Both these are also on the way to philosophy (for the national college) so I'm usually researching the techs. These are probably #1 and #2 in my games if I get 2 ancient wonders. Temple of Artemis has some decent bonuses, but it comes very early in the tech tree which makes it probably the easiest to lose out on. Even on Prince, an AI could pop archery on turn 1 and start building immediately. The mausoleum seems OK, but unless I had several stone/marble in my city I wouldn't bother.

For the classical, I think the Hanging Gardens is awesome on almost any game, and I usually take it unless I'm not doing tradition (which is the most generally useful policy tree on most games). If you have lots of desert tiles in the city, you absolutely want Petra since it makes them useful. Colossus can be quite strong if you have a coastal city, and if you have lots of water on the map, the Great Lighthouse is great. The free policy of the oracle is great, and since teching to philosophy early is a common strategy, this is useful. The Parthenon's culture is nice, but I usually value it pretty low unless I want a cultural victory. Terracotta Army is the weakest classical wonder IMO. It costs 250h, and you only get one of each unit type. Typically this might be 1 scout, 1 warrior, 1 archer, 1 spear, and 1 horse, which cost less than the wonder. 250h is 6 archers for example, almost 5 composite bows, or 3.5 swords/spears.

For medieval and later wonders, you're probably better to select based on the tech path you want to pursue or what you really need (e.g., Hagia/Great Mosque to help with religion, etc.) This advice really applies to all eras, but the bonuses aren't as huge, relative to your whole empire, as the ancient/classical ones can be. If you're playing well (assuming ~Prince difficulty) you can probably double back and still get a lot of these anyway since you'll be pulling away in techs. You don't want to give up too much trying to grab every wonder. Building 2-3 archers, a worker, settler, granary, etc may help you more in the long run than another wonder.

Kaxen said:

Whats the deal with the hanging gardens? Every time I see that wonder is available and try to build it the AI will ALWAYS wait until I have one turn left and then build it before me. It happens every time, almost seems like an AI will keep it in it's build order at one turn left then cheat to see what I'm building.

Click to expand...

I have the impression that if the AI has scouted the city you are building wonder in or has an embassy in it, then they know what wonder you are building and they will rush build it.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Superjew said:

Well I been playing the same game over and over not really getting out of the medieval era and I've figured out some of the world wonders I like and which ones I don't. I usually avoid Terracotta Army and The Great Wall however I've found that the pyramids are a must and usually up for grabs early on. Stone Henge should be built quickly if you want to start your own religion and didn't find a goody hut with a gang of free faith in the game.

The World Wonders I have rough dates on when they should be built is Chichen Itza needs to be finished before around 500 AD and Machu Picchu, if someone else is building it, before 800 AD.

One problem I've found with spamming World Wonders is I often neglect my army and another civilization destroys mine with little resistance since I spent the whole game building world wonders, so is a good rule of thumb to build one Military unit per World Wonder?

Click to expand...

I'm not even sure what victory condition you are after.

For all of them though, the higher your difficulty level, the fewer world wonders you should build (and instead build more national wonders in the capital).

Pyramids: Much, much cheaper to simply build 2 workers than this wonder.

Stonehenge: Sometimes there are better ways of getting a religion; (if you have a start suitable for desert faith or a religious natural wonder / city state near you, I'd just use those instead). What stonehenge is for is when there isn't a suitable faith pantheon nor a natural wonder nor a religious city state and you want a religion anyway.

Also, if you are going for conquest, you can conquer the cities in which the AI has built them.

Pyramids is nice for the increased worker speed, although 2 workers is really not very useful IMO. It only takes a short time to build a couple of workers/steal them so there's no urgency in building it. If a few AI take Liberty I wouldn't bother.

Hanging Gardens is nice but Temple of Artimis works out better in the long run, there was a thread a while ago that shows the Maths behind it. I wouldn't go for HG if I didn't get a free tech ruin on the way to it.

Stonehenge is overrated IMO, +5 faith is nice but considdering the oppertunity cost I'd rather go for a different way of getting a religion. Stonehenge only if you want 1 of the first few religions.

Terrcacotta army is almost never worth it, 250 hammers for usually about 3-4 units and +1 culture? I don't find that useful even if I am going for domination.

Library is too hard to get unless you get an early pottery or writing ruin AND have decent production, otherwise I wouldn't even bother.

The one that I like going for most often is Hagia Sofia, you can usually use it to get your 2nd prophet to enhance your religion or use it to get +faith, if you are going for it to get your first prophet I don't find it useful enough, it's too risky compared to the fact that you can miss a religion altogether for a wonder that then has close to no use.

Any later game wonders depend entirely on how fast you tech to it compared to how fast the AI techs to it.

I really like Stonehenge.

It's the GE point that's the kicker for me. Lets you grab another desirable wonder later on.

I was going to suggest playing at higher difficulty level so that you can’t afford to wonder spam, but then I re-read the OP:

Superjew said:

Well I been playing the same game over and over not really getting out of the medieval era ... One problem I've found with spamming World Wonders is I often neglect my army and another civilization destroys mine with little resistance

Click to expand...

The game is working as designed!

Lots of great advice in this thread! The immortal/deity caveats don’t matter since the advice is good no matter what level you are playing at. You are being challenged, and that keeps the game interesting, so you just need to adjust your play style a bit.

Hubble, as soon as possible.

Seriously, which is you difficulty level ?

Memoryjar said:

Hubble, as soon as possible.

Click to expand...

Only for Space Race victory.

If going after Cultural victory, it's the following as soon as possible:
National Wonder: National Visitor Center
World Wonders: Effiel Tower & Broadway
World Congress Project: Olympics
Tech: Internet

If going Diplomatic victory it's the Globalism tech ASAP.

The biggest factor is not in difficulty, but in number of civ opponents. If you play against 4 civs on Diety, you can easily grab 5-10 wonders throughout the game. If you play against 20 civs on Prince, you'll be lucky to grab 5.

I would like to know how you all would play if you did not focus on any World Wonders and only built infrastructure in your 4-6 cities. I for one can't resist in building Wonders yet I know that I lag behind in military units to protect my workers etc. How would your game be different if you had no Wonders until you captured other Civ's Capitals where you find them.

Thoughts?

Brew God

It can greatly expand your game-play options if you foresake wonders. For one example, take a look at the Attilla Deity Domination guide that Cromagnus is writing: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=13029790